Minor German girl’s rape: Goa minister’s son surrenders (Lead)

Panaji, Nov 4 (IANS) Goa Education Minister Atanasio Monserrate’s son Rohit, charged with raping a minor German girl, surrendered before police Tuesday - more than three weeks after a police complaint was filed against him.Rohit surrendered to the Calangute police a few hours before the police were to inform the Bombay High Court in Panaji about the progress in their investigations into the rape case, in which the kin of two more politicians is also a suspect.

Rohit appeared at the Calangute police station at 12.40 p.m. accompanied by his father and his lawyer in a car topped with a beacon light. They refused to speak to the media on their way in to the police station.

After the complaint was filed against Rohit by the mother of the rape victim Oct 14, the police had not arrested him, saying that the arrest would take place only after the victim gave her statement.

It took the police over a fortnight to record the statement. The victim’s lawyer alleged it was because there was absolutely no coordination between the police, child psychiatrists and child rights NGO representatives. “They took turns at arriving late for the appointments,” lawyer Aires Rodrigues stated.

It was only after the chief justice of the Bombay High Court took suo motu cognizance of the matter that the police really started moving to arrest Rohit. The court asked the police to inform it about the progress made in the case by Tuesday. The matter is expected to come up for hearing Wednesday.

Rohit’s statement was recorded in secrecy by the police a few hours before the victim deposed before a judicial magistrate Saturday.

Rohit Monserrrate and Warren Alemao, nephew of powerful cabinet minister Churchill Alemao and Joaquim Alemao, have been named by the mother of the victim as the main accused in the rape case. Atanasio Monserrate recently claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Francis D’Souza’s son Joshua had also had sex with the minor girl.

While admitting to a local newspaper that his son had been called to the police station for “some purpose”, D’Souza had insisted that Joshua had nothing to do with the rape.